Equine Health Texas

American Regent Animal Health has issued a voluntary recall of specific lots of Adequan® i.m. and Adequan® Canine after glass fibers were detected during testing of archived product samples. The recall is being conducted out of an abundance of caution for product quality and patient safety.
The following Adequan i.m. lots are affected:
🔹 𝐋𝐨𝐭 #24416 — 𝐄𝐱𝐩. 11/30/2027
🔹 𝐋𝐨𝐭 #25265𝐏 — 𝐄𝐱𝐩. 03/31/2027
These are the 𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 lots of Adequan i.m. currently included in the recall.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1J2Ucm4YZg/

🚨 𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐐𝐔𝐀𝐍 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐄 🚨

American Regent Animal Health has issued a voluntary recall of specific lots of Adequan® i.m. and Adequan® Canine after glass fibers were detected during testing of archived product samples. The recall is being conducted out of an abundance of caution for product quality and patient safety.

For our equine clients, the following Adequan i.m. lots are affected:

🔹 𝐋𝐨𝐭 #24416 — 𝐄𝐱𝐩. 11/30/2027
🔹 𝐋𝐨𝐭 #25265𝐏 — 𝐄𝐱𝐩. 03/31/2027

These are the 𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 lots of Adequan i.m. currently included in the recall.

If you have Adequan at home, please check the lot number on the vial or packaging. If your product matches one of the recalled lots, 𝐃𝐎 𝐍𝐎𝐓 administer it. Please contact Idaho Equine Hospital so we can help you with the next steps.

The concern is that injectable product containing particulate matter such as glass fibers could potentially cause injection-site irritation, swelling, inflammation, pain, infection, or abscess formation.

If your horse has already received Adequan from one of these lots and you have concerns, please contact us at 208-466-4613.

You’re looking at a cloudy, painful eye on a farm call, and you already know this horse could lose vision before tomorrow morning.

The hardest part with equine eye emergencies is that they often deteriorate faster than they first appear. A “small ulcer” at 6 p.m. can look very different by midnight if you’re only treating infection and not getting the process under control, which can cause the cornea to melt.

What’s helped most veterinarians is having a repeatable first-24-hour framework before the panic starts.

We broke down the exact clinical approach, field decisions, and treatment priorities that often make the difference between saving vision and losing the eye.

If you manage equine eye emergencies regularly, this is worth reading before the next one lands in your truck.

Do you know what to do – and just as importantly, what not to do—if your horse displays vague, mild, or serious signs of what might be colic? Your answer could save your horse’s life.

Learn more at TheHorse.com/equinecolic, brought to you by Kentucky Performance Products.

Chronic/Recurrent Colic in the Horse
Brian S. Burks, DVM
Diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners®
394 Fox Road
Apollo, PA 15613

(724) 727-3481
www.foxrunequine.com

Colic is a symptom and is abdominal pain, generally of the gastrointestinal tract. Chronic colic is that which has been present for at least three days, whether continuously or intermittently. It may also originate from the liver, spleen, uterus, kidney, and peritoneum. Recurrent colic refers to episodes of abdominal pain separated by days or weeks where the horse appears to be normal.

Pain from the GIT is the result of distention, mesenteric tension, inflammation, or spasm from hypermotility. Chronic colic does not include strangulating obstructive disorders such as small intestinal volvulus.

Affected horses may have a history of dietary or exercise change, lack of access to water, deworming, weight loss, infection, or abdominal surgery. A change in attitude (depression/lethargy), appetite, or f***l output may be noted.

Clinical signs of chronic or recurrent colic are typically mild to moderate. These include an extended neck, flehmen response, bruxism, pawing the ground, flank watching, kicking the abdomen, pinned ears, frequent recumbency, and rolling.

Vital signs are often normal or only mildly elevated. Abdominal distention may or may not be present. Mucous membrane color may change slightly, and the capillary refill time may increase slightly. Heart and respiratory rates may increase moderately. Intestinal borborygmi may be decreased, normal, or increased. F***l output may be normal, reduced, absent, or diarrhea.

The most common cause of chronic colic is large colon impaction, but there are many other causes, including peritonitis, enteritis/colitis, colon displacement, gastric or colonic ulceration, and intussusception. Recurrent abdominal pain is most often caused by intestinal motility disorders, often due to inflammation (inflammatory bowel disease) from a variety of causes including parasitism, sand, and immune system disorders. There may be intestinal obstruction from enteroliths or neoplasia, or intra-abdominal masses such as abscesses or neoplasms.

Diagnosis, like most diseases is based upon signalment, history, and clinical signs. Previous surgery, diet, environment, NSAIDs, tapeworms and other parasites, no water access, severe dental disease, sudden change in exercise (usually less movement), deworming, and pregnancy are all risk factors.

Blood work is common to the diagnostic work up of any horse with colic. This can help identify non-intestinal causes of pain, infection, hypoproteinemia, anemia, leukocytosis, electrolyte abnormalities, and metabolic derangements.

Abdominocentesis is useful to evaluate peritoneal fluid for inflammation or neoplasia. F***l analysis is useful to look for sand and parasitism. F***l bacteriology is used to identify infectious causes of abdominal pain. Re**al palpation is used to identify distended or ruptured viscus. Ultrasonography evaluates abdominal fluids, intestinal wall thickness, intestinal diameter, motility, intussusception, abscess, and adhesions. Radiographs are occasionally useful to evaluate for enteroliths or sand accumulation but are of limited value in all but miniature horses and foals. Gastroduodenal endoscopy identifies ulcers, strictures, parasites (bots, ascarids) and neoplasia. I take biopsies of the stomach, duodenum, and re**um to look for inflammatory bowel disease of various etiologies.

Treatment depends on the source of the problem. It may be supportive or curative, medical or surgical. Most horses require some analgesic or anti-inflammatory medication to control abdominal pain. Laxatives are given per nasogastric tube for impactions. The best laxative is water with electrolytes. Magnesium sulfate is useful to pull fluid into the colon. Mineral oil, in my opinion, is archaic. It is not a good laxative and can interfere with horses that end up requiring surgery (mineral oil in the peritoneal cavity). Mineral oil should never be given by oral syringe as it does not elicit a good swallow reflex and can easily be aspirated into the lungs, where it causes necrosis and death.

Horses with parasitism require anthelmintics based on the type of parasite present. The most common parasites are cyathostomins, tapeworms, and blot fly larvae. Ascarids (round worms) are common in foals and yearlings. There are special deworming protocols for horses with inflammatory bowel disease caused by parasites.

Inflammatory bowel disease often requires treatment with steroids for several weeks to months. IBD can progress to untreatable with severe weight loss and diarrhea.

Horses with gastric ulceration are typically treated with GastroGard for at least one month; however, ulcer location and severity should be noted via endoscopy to make sure that the correct medication is used. Since NSAIDs are a common cause of glandular gastric ulcers and colonic ulcers, these horses should not be given phenylbutazone or fluinixin meglumine. Some horses will develop ulcers even at normal doses of these medications, but all horses are at risk when higher than recommended doses are used (which also give no additional effect). Colonic ulcers are difficult to treat, and low-residue diets are recommended.

Dehydrated horses require fluids enterally, intravenously, or both. Severe dehydration requires intravenous fluid therapy. Oral fluid is contraindicated in some situations. Intravenous antibiotic therapy may be indicated for infectious diseases such as peritonitis.

Some horses with chronic/recurrent colic require exploratory laparotomy to find the lesion or to treat an impaction of the cecum or colon that is not resolving medically.

Fox Run Equine Center



www.foxrunequine.com

(724) 727-3481

Mizzou Vet Fact - Large Colon Impaction

Did you know that the equine large intestine has a 180 degree turn? This turn is called the pelvic flexure (because it sits in the pelvis of a normal horse). Due to this hairpin turn, the pelvic flexure is a common place for horses to develop an impaction. The ingesta in the large intestine is just too voluminous and dry to pass around the bend and it starts to back up. This causes gas distention, pain, and colic signs. Medical management including IV fluids and oral laxatives is tried first. If that does not work then surgery is needed.

At surgery the large intestine is removed from the abdomen and placed on a colon tray which has been covered in sterile drapes like in the photo. An incision is made in the end of the colon. This is called an enterotomy. The impacted ingesta is then flushed from the colon by passing a hose up the inside of the colon to rehydrate the impacted material and enable it to be flushed out. You can see the dark feed material being flushed from the colon in this image. During this process the colon is keep meticulously clean. After all the impacted ingesta is removed, the enterotomy is sutured. The colon is extensively lavaged with sterile fluid and then gently returned to the abdomen in the correct location. As long as surgery is performed early enough, surgical survival from large colon impactions is greater than 95%.

A free New World screwworm inspector training is now available to all Texans through AgriLife Learn.

The course covers New World screwworm biology, inspection protocols, reporting and more, and is open to anyone who wants to better understand how to protect their animals. Those who qualify may apply to become a certified New World screwworm inspector through the Texas Animal Health Commission.

Learn about the course at tx.ag/NWSTraining.

This is the New Works Screwworm fly, whch has now been detected in southern Texas. Unlike most fly species, these larvae live on the living tissue of wam-blooded animals. The New World screwworm fly prefers to lay its eggs near open wounds, but also near the navel of newborns or on insect bites. Healthy areas with soft tissue or body orifices can also be infested, such as the inner corner of the eye or the perineum. The New World screwworm fly infests both wild and domestic animals, and sometimes birds and humans. In affected localities, horse owners should pay particular attention to identifying, treating and covering even small wounds, plus frequent and thorough use of topical fly sprays.